Megaman X6 - Review

[Abdelrahman]

So here's my review of this game after beating it twice

 

Story: (6/10)

The story is that Gate, a scientist who happens to be Alia's colleague, wants to destroy all low-level Reploids so that he can create better reploids and a perfect world where he controls everything. He finds a piece of ZERO and uses his DNA to create the Nightmare Phenomenon, Nightmare ZERO and High Max. So X/ZERO fight the Mavericks to locate Gate's Laboratory to fight him, but it doesn't end there as Gate resurrects Sigma after he is defeated and X/ZERO have to defeat Sigma once again. The story is actually pretty great except for the Sigma part which came out of nowhere as Gate is this game's main villain so defeating him should've ended the game. Also if you happen to unlock ZERO (Which is really easy to do), the story they give you about how he is revived is absolute bullshit. So ZERO was somehow hiding until he repaired his body, this is absolute bullcrap as half of ZERO's body was destroyed at the end of Megaman X5 so how the hell did he heal that? Bad excuses Capcom, shame on you!

 

Gameplay: (8/10)

Overall the gameplay is great, except for the bosses, but I'll cover that later so this will mostly be about the stages. This game's ranges from really hard, to really easy like for example Gate's Laboratory and Weapon Center stages are really hard but others like Commander Yammark and Shield Sheldon are really easy. This applies to the bosses as well. Commander Yammark is probably one of the easiest bosses ever even at Level 4, but others like Nightmare Mother are hellish to beat. Also, this game's Sigma Boss was a disappointment as his 1st Form was just too easy and his 2nd Form freaking gave you Life Capsules when you destroyed the Green Sigmas which made the boss exceptionally easy to beat that I managed to get beat him on the first try.

 

Armors: (9/10)

This game has 3 additional armors that you can obtain in addition to the default Falcon Armor and Black ZERO. The Blade Armor, Shadow Armor and the Ultimate Armor. The first two can be unlocked by finding their parts in the 8 Stages. The Ultimate Armor, however, can only be unlocked by inputting a code that's given to you at the end of the game. Also ZERO is an unlockable character by defeating Nightmare ZERO. He also has his own Special Armor called Black ZERO which also has it own code that you are given at the end of the game. Overall, the Shadow Armor works best in stages like Gate Laboratory 1, but the Blade Armor and Ultimate are more generic and can work with most stages as Shadow can't use Special Weapons but those can. Also the Ultimate Armor kind of breaks the game so I am glad it is only unlockable by a cheat code.

 

Reploid Saving - Nightmare System: (6/10)

Probably the worst part of this game. This game has 128 reploids total with 16 in each level. Each reploid holds some kind of Power-Up like Parts, Items and Health Upgrades. BUT! If you happen to lose a reploid, he/she is gone forever (unless you restart the game and go through the entire level again) which freaking sucks. Also, the Nightmare System is too shitty at times. For example one of the Nightmare System effects makes the entire screen go black except for a small portion of it. And that's not a very good thing considering how hard it is to see what's going on the screen. But it does make the game interesting as it sometimes has positive effects like opening hidden parts of the stage like in Blizzard Wolfang so overall I like parts of it as it increases game replay value but I hate some parts of it.

 

Level Design: (6/10)

I just don't know what to say here. Some levels have good looks like Blizzard Wolfang, but others had absolutely disgusting level design (cough..cough..Blaze Heatnix) so it's kind of mixed but the level design was mostly boring and sometimes went a little too extreme with how many enemies hit you at the same time (ehm..ehm..Weapon Center). Also what's up with the insane amount of spikes in the first Gate Laboratory Stage? You can only pass it with Jumper equipped to X, ZERO or Shadow Armor which means that the default armor can't even get past this level. What the hell! Also playing with ZERO at this level is a bad idea as defeating the Nightmare Mother is harder with him so you are kind of forced to collect the Shadow Armor as the reploid that has the Jumper Part requires you to collect the Shadow Armor as well.

 

Graphics: (7/10)

For a PS1 Game, this one has fine graphics, not the best, but at least better than X4. If it weren't for the lazy stage design on some stages like Blaze Heatnix, I would've given it an 8/10. But at least some stages like Gate's Laboratory, Blizzard Wolfang and Central Museum were visually pleasing with the final Gate Laboratory being very fitting.

 

Music: (9/10)

This is probably the best thing about this game. The music in Megaman X6 is freaking awesome and is fitting as well. The music that plays in most stages is interesting and the opening stage has a calm yet awesome music that represents the level well. Gate and High Max's Themes are awesome. Sigma's Stage gets a creepy soundtrack that gives you a feeling of how corrupted and messed up he is, kind of like Megaman X5's Sigma Battle theme.

 

Overall: (7/10)

This game isn't as bad as some make it out to be imo, but it isn't flawless either and has huge flaws like Level Design and such but overall, I still like the game as collecting Armors and saving reploids was really fun and gave this game a good replay value despite some of its horrible bosses (ehm..ehm..Sigma). Also, the music is great and fitting.

 

Where to buy the game:

You have two options. Either buy a used copy for a compatible system, or create a Japanese PSN and buy a 1000¥ PSN Card from something like japan-codes.com so you can buy it from the store as it costs 617¥ (PS3 Only), it should show up if you search for X6 only so no need to type it in Japanese.

[Toffee.]

aside from playing against High Max, seriously he is stupid hard, even harder than Gate and Sigma imo.

You do know he is weak to Yammark/Heatnix/Turtloid's weapons, right? Or at least, in his first encounter.

His later encounters you just need to destroy his shields(ideally with Ultimate Buster X or whatever-the-funk-you-want with Zero)

 

High Max is honestly one of the easier bosses in the game.

[Abdelrahman]

High Max is honestly one of the easier bosses in the game.

I managed to defeat him with X's Magma Blade (I think this is what its called) but it was very hard and took me about 4 hours of constant tries to beat and when I did beat him my life was almost at 0 so one more hit and I would've lost.

[Astro Dude]

You do know he is weak to Yammark/Heatnix/Turtloid's weapons, right? Or at least, in his first encounter.

His later encounters you just need to destroy his shields(ideally with Ultimate Buster X or whatever-the-funk-you-want with Zero)

 

High Max is honestly one of the easier bosses in the game.

That I did not know. I thought he was just indestructible.

 

Also, Blaze Heatnix for the win!

 

And I lived that game too.

 

Does this mean it's available in the PS Store?

[Abdelrahman]

Well its avaliable in the PSN Store, but only in Japan though.

[Icy]

I adore this game. Me and my friend debated it, and yes it was rushed. Quite a lot of flaws show. But it's also bar none the most "complete", at least by modern standards, game in the X series. You have a lot of replay value with the game, all the armors are viable against bosses (some struggle like mad though), each of the upgrades make the characters feel different etc.

 

By old school standards X5 is a more complete game. Its also the most polished. But I don't think X6 should lean on its predecessor given the circumstances of its development and how X5 is canonically the end of the X era before the Z era (then ZX and then finally Legends). X6 if anything should be treated as what it should be, a spin off game like Command Mission is.

[Just Crouton]

My favorite in the X series.

 

A huge step up from X5, and really fleshed out the new stuff from that game. Plus, it fixed the mistake of having Alia intrude on gameplay by making tips optional, which is disappointing how X7 and 8 made her yell for your attention until you listened to her.

 

So much to do, so many custom parts, 5 armors, plus Zero is insane.

 

Plus a great soundtrack and some gorgeous scenery, especially in Yammark's level.

[Lonk]

The game's level design was complete and utter sheet, which was somehow made even more shitty with the nightmare mechanic in the game.  Just these reasons alone makes it a 4/10 for me.

 

X7 was a better designed game than X6.

[Icy]

The game's level design was complete and utter sheet, which was somehow made even more shitty with the nightmare mechanic in the game.  Just these reasons alone makes it a 4/10 for me.

 

X7 was a better designed game than X6.

 

[Abdelrahman]

I'm dying right now XD, but anyway X6 had some levels with lazy/bad design but not to the level of being as bad as X7 imo.

[Resident Fascist]

I mean, X6 and X7 being atrocious is one of the reasons X8 was so solid. X8 is extremely underrated, for some reason. Also the level design is utter sheet, the mavericks are boring, Gate is the most boring "villain" in the series, Zero breaks the game, X can't complete certain sections without powerups, Blaze Heatnix's stage is the worst stage in the entire Mega Man series bar none, Rainy Turtloid's stage was literally made from aborted game design from X5, the nightmare mechanic is terrible, it punishes you for going in weakness order. Beat Blaze Heatnix before Blizzard Wolffang? Okay now you have to dodge funking FIREBALLS. Awful Reploid saving system means that X can legitimately get locked out of completing the game.

 

 X7 was bad sure, but they had a new idea. X6 was a terrible X5 clone that somehow managed to be worse than X5. X6 is so bad it's outright offensive. 

[Abdelrahman]

I gotta admit, Blazing Heatnix's stage design was terrible, and not being able to save Reploids again if you miss saving them sucks, also its pretty stupid how easy some of the Mavericks were, but I though Gate was f***ing awesome, and Zero doesn't really break the game considering I have yet to beat Nightmare Mother with him even with all his Special Weapons.

[Icy]

 

 X7 was bad sure, but they had a new idea. X6 was a terrible X5 clone that somehow managed to be worse than X5. X6 is so bad it's outright offensive. 

 

Level and boss design sure. But the sheer number of things to do and how they affect your approach at least puts it at a solid 5/10 game (playable and worth playing but nothing spectacular). Though I do think its a pretty sub-par X series game. But then I think the same thing of X3 so...

 

X8 was pretty great imo. It just felt floaty because the 3d felt really out of place. Very few stages I recall took advantage of it and the Jellyfish boss stage just half-a**ed the 3d. The ride chase ice stage was amazing though and no one can tell me otherwise. The story was pretty good too.

[The Nyx Avatar]

It had one of my favorite soundtracks out of any Megaman X game. I could get pass most of the stages just fine (though, Metal Shark Player was always a jabroni to get through, even if you did so on attempt 1; I made it the stage I start first). But then it hits you hard in the stages after you beat the first 8 bosses. There's a stage littered with spikes almost everywhere and the Nightmare Mother was a jabroni. Say what you want about Gate and Sigma (I didn't really care about either of them in this game).

 

Overall, I could go either way whether it should have been made or not.

[Astro Dude]

You might want to hold off beating the bosses until at least after the 8th boss when you should at least 3k Nightmare Souls. It gives you a bit of backstory on Gate.

 

As for X8, I like it, mostly because of the fanservice character, Layer, who's not all looks, she's a female Zero.

[Abdelrahman]

Updated the post with my own review of the game. (Also if any of you guys spot grammar errors, please tell me about them so I can fix them)

[Expelsword]

So here's my review of this game after beating it twice

...

 

Zero's revival is pretty silly (it's implied Isoc may have actually been the one to fix him), but that's Capcom's fault for deciding to make X6 in the first place after the Zero series was set up. In any case, Mega Man games have never been known for their story.

 

Play on Xtreme if you think Sigma 2 is too easy. I have to agree that he's not much challenge otherwise.

 

See below for thoughts on the Nightmare System

 

Zero and Falcon X can both make it past Gate 1 with Wolfang's weapon and Zero doesn't need Jumper at all; Hyoroga lets him dash on the ceiling. Blade Armor doesn't either, it can take damage and Mach Dash up, or get up the same way as Falcon. Admittedly, making you look for either Jumper or the Blade Armor is kind of mean, but if you were to not, you could pretty much ignore the Nightmare System entirely and still beat the game.

 

Zero breaks the game, X can't complete certain sections without powerups

Blaze Heatnix's stage is the worst stage in the entire Mega Man series bar none, Rainy Turtloid's stage was literally made from aborted game design from X5,

the nightmare mechanic is terrible, it punishes you for going in weakness order. Beat Blaze Heatnix before Blizzard Wolffang? Okay now you have to dodge f***ing FIREBALLS. Awful Reploid saving system means that X can legitimately get locked out of completing the game.

 

Zero is undoubtedly broken. SDC is at its strongest in X6, however, ironically, it's also replaced by the Guard Shell glitch, Zero also has the Ensuizan invincibility glitch on many stages.

 

Despite these things, people don't realize just how good X is either. His charged weapons are all tremendous in their own ways (except Ice Burst and Ground Dash, which, surprise, have their own exploits). Charged Ray Arrow actually does full weakness damage to everyone except Mijinion! It's not as if X6 is the Zero show - some stages are far easier (Central Museum, Magma Area, Gate's Lab) using X's enhanced weapons and armor.

 

If you're having trouble with Heatnix, may I suggest charged Metal Anchor and Ray Arrow? Admittedly, the stage is jerkish, having you fight so many minibosses, but if you come prepared, it's really not impossible (especially considering the game gives you a full weapon refil on death)

 

First of all, what's wrong about making you think twice about going in weakness order? It adds a bit of depth to the path you take, I'd say... You can trade any of the Nightmare Effects around if you want. It's an experimental thing. Nothing forces you to put up with the darkness, as dumb as it is.

 

As for your second point, I suggest you do a little more research. You can lose parts forever, but you can never ever lose Hyper Dash or Jumper (not technically required but vehemently recommended) or Saber Plus for that matter, and you'd have to be flat out comatose to to lose Shock Buffer, D Barrier, or Ultimate Buster, which are all the best parts far and away. Additionally, almost all of the Life Up Reploids are either impossible or very difficult to lose. The permanent loss of Reploids only punishes the hardcore player who can't bear to let them be lost.

 

Zero doesn't really break the game considering I have yet to beat Nightmare Mother with him even with all his Special Weapons.

 

It's weak to Rakukoujin, for the record. I suggest going in with Shock Buffer and D Barrier if you're struggling.

[Astro Dude]

In my opinion, Zero was a staple in the X series so of course they would find a way to bring him back. But this?! In X2 you had to collect his head, torso and legs, here you get him after beating Zero Nightmare. It's not that I'm complaining, but why?

 

And I think you meant to say he/she since the reploids you need to rescue in Rainy Turtloid's stage are female.

[Abdelrahman]

And I think you meant to say he/she since the reploids you need to rescue in Rainy Turtloid's stage are female.

Didn't notice that, but thanks for telling me. I fixed that and added my review of the music and graphics. Also, I added the options currently avaliable for buying the game.